Incorporating reflective materials into fire hose

Has anyone heard of firehose with some sort of reflective material incorporated into it? I would think that when struck by a firefighter's flashlight that this would help them find the hose and to help them get out of a building if they became separated from the hose.

Alternatively, with some of the advancements they're making in LEDs, how about incorporating a string of LED lights into the hose?

“Guys if you get hurt, we’ll help you. If you get sick we’ll treat you. If you want to bitch and moan, then all I can tell you is to flick the sand out of your slit, suck it up or get the hell out!”
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"Combat Firehose" Company has hose that has reflective type of material in the white part of the hose. When I first came on my current Department we had a lot of this hose. It is green with (2) large white stripes down the hose. I actually liked the hose.

As most of you all know by now, I have no firefighting experience or training (yet). But I have been spending time in the station and I have been looking at the apparatus, trying to build up a memory of where things are, what things are, and so on. So I've never handled a hose (fire hose, that is ), but I've seen them.

As I'm looking at the picture in this thread, and reading a description of reflective material in the white part of the hose, I'm thinking back to what I've seen, and realizing I've never seen a white fire hose. I've seen hose that looks like it may have been white once upon a time, but now is far from it.

So this makes me wonder how long would the reflectivity actually last? Before it either wears out, since the actual microscopic reflective beads are pretty delicate, or else it just gets so dirty that you can't even see it anymore. As I said, I have no idea myself, and this is a question I am asking in the hope that maybe mikeyboy or someone with more experience can speak to.

The comments and opinions I express are solely my own and do not necessarily represent those of any employer or volunteer organization with which I am associated. Nobody is responsible for anything I say other than I alone.

you've never seen a clean hose before?
so much for station maintenance and etc.

Not clean as in like new. Not clean as in white is white. But not dirty as in covered in ick. To put another way, the hoses I've seen look just like the turnout gear of experienced firefighters after the gear is a couple years old.

The comments and opinions I express are solely my own and do not necessarily represent those of any employer or volunteer organization with which I am associated. Nobody is responsible for anything I say other than I alone.

I hope you meant experience in the making of white fire hose JJR512. I think 30 + years in the Fire Service is enough experience for anything else you might want to know.

Huh?

The only experience I mentioned was my own, as in none.

Oh, did you think I was referring to you when I asked for someone with more experience? Sorry, no, I was talking about myself: "As I said, I have no idea myself, and this is a question I am asking in the hope that maybe mikeyboy or someone with more experience can speak to." Sorry if I caused any confusion.

What I meant is that reflective fabric loses reflectivity much quicker than the fabric itself wears out, at least the reflective fabrics I'm familiar with (like 3M Scotchlite). Plus there's the natural discoloration that occurs to hoses over time, just like with turnout gear, even if turnout gear is washed, after awhile it still looks permanently dirty. So what I was saying was first admitting that I really have no experience to know how long this hose you showed a picture of will actually stay that reflective, and then I was asking if someone who has more experience with that hose than me and speak more about it, specifically about how long it stays reflective like in the photo.

The comments and opinions I express are solely my own and do not necessarily represent those of any employer or volunteer organization with which I am associated. Nobody is responsible for anything I say other than I alone.

A little off-topic, but...

(*Hey. New guy to firehouse forums here. Haven't yet figured out how to start a new thread.)

...still related to the use of fire hose for firefighter self-rescue.

I have been thinking recently about a possible application of traditional, prussic-based rope ascension technique in the event of a floor collapse landing a ff in the basement. What-if, assuming the charged line follows the ff into the basement, the ff tied two prussic-hitches using rescue webbing around the hose, one for a foot-loop, the other to be attatched to the ff's rescue or SCBA harness. Wouldn't this be an effective method for an uninjured ff to self-rescue from the basement. I have not been able to find any eveidence of this method being used. I'm sure it would need some fine tuning, but I think it could work. Thoughts?

Got ya

JJR512...I reread your response and as far as reflective fire hose there has been little that I am aware of on the subject. I have dealt with many other aspects of fire hose but reflectivity was not one of them. I just ran across this and thought you might be interested in it. Good luck with your research....and I'm sorry if I misread your response.

Fabric fire hose when made at the factory, is usually a natural color, white, and if the customer wants is colored, they inject the Yellow, Blue, Green, Red or what other color you may want in the outer jacket.

The green-white hose line is made that way from scratch. The hose fabric a dyed green or injected that color and during the milling, making of the hose, the reflective material is loomed with the other fabric and the hose jacket is formed.

For what it is worth, we bought hose for years, that when it came in and taken out of the box the jacket was white. Once it was placed into service and saw a few jobs, it wasn't white any longer but had became a tan looking color.

The hose you see in this photo was when new, was white. A few years of fires turns the color.

Reflective materials in hose couplings

Originally Posted by auxman

Has anyone heard of firehose with some sort of reflective material incorporated into it? I would think that when struck by a firefighter's flashlight that this would help them find the hose and to help them get out of a building if they became separated from the hose.

Just to expand on the topic of using reflective materials in hoses, Mercedes Textiles promotes a special house coupling that includes highly-reflective arrows to assist firefighters in quickly finding the way out by looking at a coupling (even in very low-light situations). See demo...